An Overview of the Course of Language Development.ppt

An Overview of the Course of Language Development Communication development in infancy Research shows that newborns prefer to hear the language they heard while in utero. The first months: infants begin to acquire the communicative skills, long before they say their first words. Babies are intensely social beings: 1. gaze into the eyes of the caregivers and are sensitive to the emotional tone of the voices around them; 2. pay attention to the language spoken to them; 3. take turn in conversation, even if that turn is only a burble; 4. If they want something, they learn to make their intention known. 5. In addition to possessing the social motivations that are evidenced so early in life, infants are also physiologically equipped to process incoming speech signals; 6. Capable of making fine distinctions among speech sounds. By the age of six months: babies have already begun to categorize the sounds of their own language, much as the adult speakers do; By the age of about eleven months: many babies understand fifty or more common words, and point happily at the right person when someone asks, “where is daddy?” At approximately the same age that they take their first steps, many infants produce their first words. Before children produce those first words, they are able to communicate nonverbally with those around them, and to convey their intentions. 一直在与外界互动 Phonological development: learning sounds and sound patterns Midway through their first year, infants begin to babble, playing with sound much as they play with their fingers and toes. Early in their second year, for most children, the babbling of the prelinguistic infant give way to words. (babbling VS talking) NOTE: There has been considerable controversy over the relation between babbling and talking, but most researchers now agree that babbling blends into early speech and may continue even after the appearance of recognizable words. Once infants have begun to speak, the course of langua